UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology

Directors:

This course focuses on the traditional music of Bulgaria in two forms: (1) women’s choral singing; and (2) instrumental music for dances. The women’s choir sings traditional and arranged versions of songs from the villages of Bulgaria, a tradition made famous on the world-music charts under the name Le mystere des voix bulgares. The instrumental dance ensemble features Western instruments such as saxophone, clarinet, accordion, electric guitar, and bass, in a style made famous by the virtuoso Bulgarian clarinetist Ivo Papazov. Lessons on the traditional Bulgarian bagpipe, gaida, and guitar-like lute, tambura, are also available.